The Time Has Come: GenderAvenger Is Raising the Bar for Gender Representation In Public Dialog
GenderAvenger was launched with an ambitious goal: to ensure that women were always part of the public arena. For starters, we set a 40% representation of women as our minimum measure of success. I spent many hours in front of many supporters and skeptics in the homes of wonderful friends who believed in the mission. I was often asked how I arrived at 40%. The truth is I dreamt up the number just as I had dreamt up the name GenderAvenger. Just as often, I was asked why the percentage was so high, with folks citing numerous sociological studies that show behavior changes when 33% thresholds are reached. I do not recall ever being asked why the goal wasn’t higher. We all suffered from low expectations based on experience.
It is time to up the ante.
Six years later, it is time to up the ante. We don’t want to wait any longer. We have watched as our community and its impact has grown. The most common response to a negative tally used to be either “go away” or “there are only 23% women in tech, so our panel of ten with two women is just fine” or “it is really hard to book women”, etc. Today, the more likely response is “yikes, we screwed up” and “we are working to change the balance” and the like.
In 2017, we awarded only six GA Stamps of Approval, and, four months into 2020, we have already awarded nine.
U.S. Population Gender Balance
It’s time to dare to demand that the number of women on public stages, “best of” lists, Zoom calls, and more should have the same percentage of women as there are in the US population. The math is simple. One in 5 people in the US is a woman of color, therefore, our target is a minimum of 20% women of color. Women overall represent 51% of the population and we demand they comprise 50% of conversations in the public dialog.
You can make this new goal a reality:
Nominate organizations to receive GA Stamps of Approval so we can continue to demonstrate that the goals can be met.
Ask men you know to sign the GA Pledge to not appear on panels where there are no women.
Use the GA Tally app often. It’s easy and fast:
Download the app.
Click on “Count Who’s Present”.
Fill in what you see: how many women, how many women of color, how many men, how many nonbinary persons.
Hit submit and add a short title describing what you are tallying.
Add a hashtag if you have one.
Hit submit and click on “photo” if you have one or “chart” to create a pie chart, and the GA Tally will create an image showing the outcome that includes your photo or a pie chart.
Pick the share button you want: Facebook, Twitter, Email,or Download.
You can choose to be anonymous by hitting the anonymous button, and GenderAvenger will share your tally anonymously on social media for you.
When the GenderAvenger community calls out gender imbalance and demands that women’s voices be heard in the public dialog, change happens. Help us grow. Tell a friend about GA and email friends your tallies. Together, we can make 50% women and 20% women of color the rule rather than the exception.
It’s easier than ever to take a stand.
It’s easier than ever to take a stand, and with GenderAvenger there are thousands of others behind you to make the dream of balanced representation a reality.